Early the next morning, Zhao Yi took the morning court and came to the imperial study, where the bookcase was already full of a bunch of folds.

"The prince Shaobao Feng Qi, the defendant's nephew was not allowed to borrow money, and he was determined to kill. The evidence is insufficient, and he has been imprisoned, and he is asked to make a decision on his majesty. ”

"Captain Jiang Gao, the defendant committed adultery with a woman, was discovered by her husband, and murdered her husband with a woman, and has been arrested."

"Washing horses and Li Zhong, abusing lynching, killing several domestic servants, there is no clear evidence, waiting for Your Majesty to decide."

Zhao Yizhi opened a few books, and they were all the books of Daqi officials.

"What's going on? Xuan Liu Pang came to see me! Zhao Yizhi shouted to the outside world.

Before he could, a thin old man stood outside the door: "Your Majesty, Weichen Liu Pang is ordered to meet you." ”

"Come in." Zhao Yizhi replied in the imperial study, and Liu Pang got up and pushed the door in.

Zhao Yizhi raised his head and was slightly stunned, because of Mr. Wu and the fourth son, he had some impressions of this thin old man, but now that he sees him again, he only feels that this little old man is thinner, and he just entered the door as if the door was not opened, as if he squeezed in through the crack in the door.

Zhao Yizhi shook his head slightly, now is not the time to care about this, and pushed the stack of folds forward: "Lord Liu, what's going on with these folds?" ”

This can make Liu Pang down, for the case of these officials in the past two days, Liu Pang has not slept well for two nights, and today Zhao Yi announced that he would enter the palace, and he had already been mentally prepared.

Liu Pang said with a bitter face: "Your Majesty, this... Wechen didn't know. A total of 23 officials committed crimes in two days, and all of them were major homicides. Each case was personally interrogated by Wei Chen, and there was no difference. The families of the victims insisted that these adults were responsible. Wechen can't be idle for verification, and these memorandaries are written by other colleagues in the yamen..."

"I didn't ask you who wrote it! Most of these officials are honest and honest people, and the prince Shaobao is almost old, seventy years old! How did he kill his young and strong nephew? Don't you even check it? Zhao Yizhi was puzzled.

Liu Pang still had a bitter gourd face: "This... Weichen was also very puzzled, but some of the victims were kind to others on weekdays and had no enemies. The family insisted that these adults had done it, and Weichen did not dare to move the punishment, so he had to be temporarily imprisoned to wait for His Majesty's will. ”

Zhao Yizhi took a few deep breaths and calmed down his mood, in this pile of folds, Shangshu alone caught four of them, is this still worth it? This is enough to paralyze the ministries and bureaus in the capital.

"You go back first, you are not allowed to be executed until the matter is verified! Don't do everything yourself. On weekdays, the matter of helping the people find dogs and chickens is put aside, and these cases are investigated first. Zhao Yi looked at Liu Pang's bitter face, and knew that it was not his fault, twenty-three officials had committed murder cases in two days, and most of them held important positions in the court, and this matter would be forgotten on anyone.

Liu Pang knelt on the ground and kowtowed, but he was afraid of a few steps, and left the imperial study as if he was fleeing, for fear that Zhao Yizhi would be unhappy and take off his official hat.

"Chen Congwei!" Zhao Yizhi called Chen Congwei again, and Qingtian just pushed the door open, and was driven out by Zhao Yizhi with a wave of his hand: "Forget it, this has nothing to do with you." ”

Indeed, there are millions of people in the capital, and the dead are only a few dozen people, although they are related to these officials, but Chen Congwei and others cannot be exhaustive, and letting a few of them inspect and correct mistakes in this million people is tantamount to looking for a needle in a haystack.

Qingtian and the others took the door and left, Zhao Yi held his forehead, and had a headache.

Suddenly, Zhao Yizhi remembered the man in black he met the night before the star, and hurriedly called the star picker in.

"Pick the stars, where did you meet the man in black the night before yesterday, now go again, can you still find it?" Zhao Yizhi asked.

"Yes!"

Zhao Yizhi nodded and said, "Okay, you are now with the sea... Forget it, I'll go myself. Where is it? Now lead the way. ”

Wang Zhenliang knew Zhao Yizhi's character of leaving when he said he would go, and the palace had already prepared a number of carriages on standby at any time, Zhao Yizhi got into the carriage, and the four people of Tulin, Nafeng, Split River, and Shaoshan accompanied the escort, led by the star, and rushed to the black-clothed man he met by the star.

"Where is this?" When he arrived at the place, Zhao Yizhi got out of the carriage and looked around.

In the words of later generations, this is already a "slum" in the capital, and the alleys are full of sewage and exude a bad smell. The bluestone bricks on the ground are round, and I don't know how many hundred years have passed, and the cracks are covered with moss.

"Your Majesty, be careful." Zhao Yizhi almost slipped, but fortunately, Tui Lin was quick and stepped forward to help him.

Na Feng jumped on the roof, looked around, and found that there was a large group of people gathered in front of him, and there were some Fu Yin's head-catchers, so he hurriedly lowered his head and told the truth what he saw.

"Your Majesty, where I met the man in black, it is also there." Xingxing looked at Nafeng's long stick and said quickly.

"Let's go, let's see how it goes!" The five of them escorted Zhao Yi in the middle and walked towards the alley.

Picking stars separated the crowd and squeezed in: "What's going on?" ”

"You don't know yet? That Master Fu Kong killed someone, and he killed it here! ”

"Don't talk nonsense! The government hasn't found out yet, so you're talking nonsense here! Could it be that his son did it? ”

"Poor Master Fu, guarding a bunch of iron lumps, living a poor and white life, and having an unsuccessful son..."

Although Zhao Yizhi stood far away, he could still hear the conversation of the people clearly, and when he came back from picking stars, he was about to report it, and Zhao Yizhi indicated that he already knew.

"Your Majesty, it was the man in black I met here last night." Picking the stars looked around and confirmed that it was correct.

Tui Lin was still standing where Zhao Yizhi had just almost fallen, carefully looking at the bluestone slab on the ground.

Zhao Yizhi walked over and asked, "What are you looking at?" ”

Tui Lin pointed to the bluestone slab and said, "Your Majesty, look here, this is what almost tripped you just now. ”

In the gap between the two bluestone bricks, there is a piece of iron. Na Feng slammed the long stick in his hand on the bluestone slab, and the iron piece was shocked out, caught by the two fingers of the star, and handed it to Zhao Yizhi.

Zhao Yizhi took the iron sheet, slowly flipped it over, and directly the back of the iron sheet was covered with mud, Zhao Yizhi was not too dirty, he reached out to brush away the soil stained on it, and the word "Chu" suddenly appeared!

"Your Majesty, could it be the prince of Chu Xiang..."Shaking Shan said hesitantly.

Zhao Yizhi glanced at him: "Don't talk nonsense without evidence, the crime of framing the minister is not light, not to mention that the other party is still Chu Xiang's son!" ”

Shaking the mountain bowed his head in disdain, not daring to answer.

"Let's go, let's go somewhere else."

Zhao Yizhi took five people including Xingxing, and within one day, he ran to 23 homicide places. Except for Fu Kong's house, most of the other ministers live in groups, and it is not troublesome to run.

As a result, a few pieces of iron were also found sporadically at the rest of the scene, and there was a "Chu" character on them without exception!

"Let's go back to the palace." Zhao Yizhi threw the iron piece to the star, turned around and got into the carriage.

As soon as he returned to the imperial study, Wang Zhenliang waited outside the door for a long time, and hurriedly took over the jacket on Zhao Yizhi's body: "Your Majesty, Zhou Xiang asked for an audience, and now he is waiting in the Taihe Palace..."

"Well, it's just in time, let's come to the imperial study." Zhao Yizhi asked for the iron piece from the hand of picking the star, entered the imperial study, picked up the ginger soup offered by the palace maid, took a sip, and drove away the cold.

Zhou Ziru is also a brocade hat mink fur, and patted a thin layer of snow on his body outside the imperial study.

"It's snowing?"

"It's just falling, and it's snowing heavily."

"That's good, the people will have a good harvest year next year." Zhao Yizhi smiled with satisfaction: "By the way, what are you looking for me?" ”

Zhou Ziru heard Zhao Yizhi's question, so he stopped moving, took out a secret letter from his arms, handed it to Zhao Yizhi, and sat down himself: "The spies came to report that King Chuxiang received the news that his grandson Ge Yigang had just died, fainted twice a day, and threatened to kill the capital. The counselors and the doormen urged them to stop. The king of Chu Xiang sent people to the table, wanting to come to the capital to pay tribute to his grandson, and the messenger had passed through Anhui City. ”

Zhao Yizhi took the letter and looked at it, and asked, "How does Mr. Zhou think this matter should be handled?" ”

"To allow it or not, it is up to Your Majesty to decide."

"Then according to me, it is naturally time to agree! No matter what the purpose of King Chu Xiang is, since he takes the initiative to come to the capital, just let him come, can I still be afraid of him in the capital? Zhao Yizhi wanted to change to a comfortable sitting position on the dragon chair, but he didn't feel comfortable no matter how he sat down.

"Your Majesty doesn't say that in the capital, there is no need to be afraid of any place in Daqi." Zhou Ziru patted his ass at the right time.

"Don't shoot the horses, how can I have Mr. Zhou's good skills, I haven't received the news yet, Mr. Zhou received it first." In Zhao Yizhi's words, there was a slight hint of resentment.

Zhou Ziru laughed loudly: "Your Majesty doesn't need to care, the minister began to send secret agents to the vassal kings in various places a few years ago, just to be able to come in handy one day and recover the domain." This is done with the heart. ”

Zhao Yizhi was surprised: "Mr. Zhou is a good method." ”

Zhou Ziru got up and said: "Originally, Wechen was still worried about His Majesty's dilemma, but since His Majesty's holy will has already been decided, Wechen is too worried. Wechen retired. ”

"Wait!" Zhao Yizhi shouted to stop Zhou Ziru and threw the iron pieces on the bookcase: "Mr. Zhou, do you recognize this thing?" ”

Zhou Ziru took a closer look and said, "But ordinary iron pieces, and some soil, this is... What are the tools of the farmer's farming? ”

Zhao Yizhi shook his head and asked: "Within two days, twenty-three court officials in Daqi committed murder at the same time, and the defendant was a murderer, Mr. Zhou has heard of this, right?" ”

"Wechen did hear about this matter, Wechen concluded that this matter was framed by others, twenty-three officials, most of whom are in important positions, but they committed murder at the same time, it is too coincidental, nine times out of ten someone deliberately did it." Zhou Ziru said and looked at the iron piece in his hand.

"This!" Zhou Ziru soon discovered the word "Chu" on the back of the iron piece.

Zhao Yizhi stared at Zhou Ziru and asked, "I was about to ask, can Mr. Zhou know this?" ”

"The King of Chuxiang and the King of Sichuan and Shu have been in contact for a hundred years, and I heard that the Tang Gate of Sichuan and Shu is good at using secret weapons. Your Majesty thinks that it is possible that the 'entourage' around Ge Cifeng did it, and this method is used to blame the ministers of the court, once these important adults are imprisoned, the center of the court will fail, Chu Xiang... Maybe it's a good idea? Zhou Ziru said.

"Good! Righteousness and me-will! That's what I thought, too! In addition, the king of Chu Xiang just asked to enter Beijing, so it seems that Chu Xiang is afraid that it was premeditated! ”

"Your Majesty, if you keep interrupting, you will suffer from it!"